other smelly late August stuff

Keiko Mecheri Peau de Peche (white peach, orris powder, sandalwood, amber wood) reminds me of Annick Goutal Petite Cherie but with more peach and a tiny bit more punch (I have read that some people get a plastic note off of this one - I don't at all).  If you don't have Petite Cherie I suggest you get your hands on PdPeche  because everyone need a pretty fruity well-done 'fume IMHO. (Thanks to Lisa for the sample!)

Diptyque L'Eau and Eau Lente.  I completely forgot about these gems until Olenska made mention of them in recent blog conversations.  Why is it when I want to stop liking perfumes for budgetary reasons do I stumble upon ones that I want so badly?  Sigh.

Dehydrating food.  Between pickling/canning which is mostly vinegar and spice smell, I have been dehydrating a LOT since our two gardens are overflowing with bounty and I can only put up so many pickles.  Dehydrating food ends up, after a few hours, all smelling the same.  And since it takes hours to dehydrate (up to 14 hours), that smell is in the house a heck of a lot of the time.  I wonder what that smell is?  Cellulose?  I'm getting kinda tired of it.  Perhaps next batch I'll put the dehydrator out on the back porch.

(You can see I actually dehydrated cucumbers - as I mentioned I was way tired of canning pickles. Also in this photo are zucchini and tomatoes.   No I did not dehydrate the beans - they're in the photo because I like the texture.  I have also dehydrated bananas, nectarines, basil, chard, eggplant, and clementines.   But not marshmallows. I'm learning a lot about the various subcultures involved in dehydrating - it is quite eye-opening)

Opoponax

Let me see, okay Sunday was the first time I spritzed on Les Nereides Opoponax.After doing a little research on this fine fragrance,  I read somewhere that someone mentioned that at first blush this smells like chlorine.  I don't really get the swimming pool vibe off of Opoponax, but perhaps it's the benzoin.

Nope I don't think it's that because doesn't benzoin smell vanilla-y?  The notes of Opoponax are opoponax (sweet myrrh), amber, vanilla, sandalwood, benzoin and citrus.  I get a a lemony citrus, which is delicious and adds a bit of acid to the otherwise sweetness of this scent.  Can you tell I'm watching too many cooking shows?

Then Monday came around.  My sister M and her family came into town on their way to vacation in Chicago.  Remember my post about attempting to make L'Air de Rien  my semi-signature scent?  Well that didn't work!  I wore Annick Goutal Mandragore.  Perhaps because I was thinking of her two young sons and Harry Potter, and that mandrake connection or something.  Or perhaps because someone on Facebook Fragrance Friends just wore it.  We had a nice lunch and off they went, up the road to Chi-town.

But Monday night, I was itching to sniff Les Nereides Opoponax again.  Dear me, I like this.  A LOT.  I did some more reading, and someone else said s/he gets a whiff of Playdoh from it.  Hmmm not me, but there IS something in there that's weird (but in a good way).  What is that?

Tuesday. Yep you guess it, LN Opoponax again.

Wednesday, Le Labo Iris 39.

Thursday, sampling Santa Maria Novella Opoponax.  Listed as a cologne, I can see where folks may think that this one is slightly more masculine than the Les Nereides.  The SMN is a bit bitter, but that is its beauty.  I read on basenotes that James Joyce was heard to prefer opoponax scents.  I think I'm becoming an opoponax freak!  Unfortunately for me (or fortunately because I cannot afford another love) this one fades very very very quickly from my skin.

Thursday evening : another Writer's Creativity Salon night - of course I just had to wear Coty Chypre. Oh yes, Dorothy would have been proud.

It's Sunday again, and I really need to end this post - I can see it going on and on and on, but I really don't know how to end it and I'm getting nervous about not knowing how to end it and I have a headache coming on, so I'll just thank Christos for the Opoponax samples and type:   THE END.

Lady Gaga, fire your PR/Marketing person pronto

Although I really don't think anyone cares (as I haven't seen this mentioned on any blogs or on the YouTube channel) that there is a glaring TYPO in this commercial, I'm posting about it.

Sheesh!!

Is this world we are living in that grammatically challenged?

Now I know I make spelling and grammatical errors in this blog often, but I don't have people whose job it is to make sure that these types of errors are (or are not) caught and corrected.

Arghh again.


Okay I feel (a little bit) better now.  Off to make relish.

A week in August, and La Myrrhe

Monday I was too tired from the events of the weekend, so I didn't wear any perfume.  Tuesday, I spritzed on some Lalique Flora Bella as I need a mood lift.  Wednesday was Hermes Un Jardin Apres la Mousson day, and also the day I received a bunch of sample from the most wonderous Christos!!!

So on Thursday I planned on a lazy day (after I cleaned the chicken coop, and scrubbed the bathroom floor) of going through all the samples and setting up days to test them.  Well that didn't happen (though I did end up cleaning the coop after dinner) because I needed to help a friend with some computer-related stuff.  I wore Miller Harris L'Air de Rien.  By the way, I plan on making this my semi-signature scent.  Meaning, around my family and certain friends, I'm only going to wear this scent.  We'll see if I can pull this off.

So now it's Friday.  I'm dipping into Christos' samples and just had to wear Serge Lutens La Myrrhe.  This stuff is exquisite and in fact I happily shrieked when I opened the package to see this as my original sample from Olenska was nearly empty. Christos has a spot-on review of this perfume here. Notes for La Myrrhe include aldehydes (not the horrible sneezy kind), mandarin, anise and myrrh.  You know I love me my anise!  I really love this scent - I have to say, that after Queen Rose, this is my second favorite Lutens. This also lasts fairly long on my skin - a good four hours. And this time it didn't play hide-and-seek with me like it did before.   I am not a gourmandy gal, so for those who are also not gourmand fans, I believe you would still like it lots.

My thanks again to Christos for making me so happy!

Coty Smitty and Wild Musk Patchouli

(my peace sign beaded perfume sample bag)

I swapped with a fragrance lover whom I met on Facebook's FFF group, and I received a healthy sample of Coty Smitty.  'The Disco Fragrance"  hahaa.  I remember going to a disco club back in the day - even though it made me gag (the club, not Smitty as I had never heard of it then) but I did like to dance.  In 1976 I was probably wearing their Sweet Earth compacts.  Gosh I loved those compacts, especially the Woods collection.

There isn't a lot of reviews or mentions of Smitty on the interwebs. (Basenotes only mentions that it is discontinued, and that it was launched in 1976).  I wonder why there is a lack of information - it really is a good perfume.  There is a nice mixture of green and warmth, the sillage is good, and it lasts quite long.  From what I have gathered, I believe that this was Coty's answer to Revlon's Charlie.  Now I haven't sniffed Charlie in YEARS so I really cannot say much about their similarity or differences.  The only thing I remember about Charlie, okay two things - that awful commercial and the fact the my sister wore it and I didn't like it on her at all.

Lisa also gave me a sample of Coty's Wild Musk Patchouli blend oil  Now THIS is what I thought Bronze Goddess would be like.  A sweet patchouli with hints of musky beachy (whatever that means to me) goodness.  Absolutely lovely!  I don't remember ever sniffing this back in the day - the regular Wild Musk, sure, but not this one.  Oh a definite MUST HAVE.

Thanks to Lisa for the opportunity for me to wear these discontinued delights!  I am becoming such a Coty fan gal.